Transcript

I thank all of our speakers for their perspectives on the various aspects of ESG. As rightly highlighted by all our speakers, climate change is the major drive for companies to adopt greener operations. We have 8 awards within the environment category, and in this ceremony, I’ll be announcing key breakthrough criteria under it. The rest can be accessed from our website and yearbook. The first award that I’ll be announcing is for air pollution management. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big round of applause for GSW Energy Limited for the Best Air Pollution Management Award. Some of their air pollution management include the prohibition on the use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons within their plants. They also monitor, measure, and practice the reduction of SOX, NOX, and PM10.

At the outset, let me thank ESG RISC for this award in the category of Air Pollution Management. At JSW Energy, we are at the forefront of energy transition, building a portfolio of the most efficient and smart sustainable solutions. At JSW Energy, Our vision is to advance to a tomorrow where we are a 10 gigawatt company by 2025 and a 20 gigawatt company by 2030. Our incremental capacity additions are being completely made through renewable energy sources. With our central theme to promote a net zero strategy in energy production and consumption, we are constantly marching towards a tomorrow that encompasses the greater good. Through our established corporate governance practices and sustainability framework, we at JSW Energy consider effective management of air quality as an important part of our sustainability strategy. We have developed various plant-level mitigation measures to control and release the gaseous emissions due to our operations. We have further set ourselves very stringent target to reduce our air pollution by 60% by 2030 from a base year of 2020. As we continue our journey towards a net zero future, we aim to make use of our knowledge base and capabilities to create and support long-term solutions for environmental changes and progress towards a better tomorrow. Thank you very much.

Our next award is for green supply chain. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited to have won the Best Green Supply Chain Award. Let me share some of their initiatives. This includes the development of their own supplier sustainability index to evaluate critical and high-impact supplier sustainability performance. They also source more sustainable materials and manufacture at factories that ensure environmental and social responsibility without affecting cost and quality.

It’s our pleasure to receive this award for Best Supply Chain Award in ESG category. Thanks to Team Equity for acknowledging our effort in sustainability and ESG domain. We started our sustainability journey 1.0 in 2012 and made good progress on that resource efficiency. Now we are transiting it to sustainability 2.0 for our product-centric approach to include product design development, supply chain and customer centricity for our transformation of ESG into that entire value chain. Thanks once again, Team Equity for giving this award to us and acknowledging our effort in this direction.

Next in line is green products and services. Please give a big round of applause to Marico Limited for the best green products and services. Some of their initiatives include the usage of recycled materials for packaging and the promotion of dematerialization and elimination of hazardous materials in packaging. They have a special Samyouth initiative, which is a responsible sourcing program aiming to source materials from responsible businesses that share Marico’s sustainability vision.

On behalf of Marico Limited, I extend my heartfelt thank you to the organizing team for recognizing Marico’s effort in the space of sustainability. As a consumer product company, we have been taking efforts in this space for many years. Our intent is to design green products, have green operations, so that we contribute to this important cause wholeheartedly. and to the best possible extent. We have ensured that we use renewable energy in our operations. We are using lifecycle assessment for our products to ensure the greenness of our products in terms of using green materials, sustainable materials, reduction in plastic consumption, and by ensuring that overall impact is on lower side. We have also extended our sustainability vision and sustainability goals to our suppliers through the program somewhere. And it has been an important and a very successful journey till then. Thank you very much.

The final award that I’ll be announcing under the Environment category is for Waste Management. I request all to give a big round of applause to Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited for the Best Waste Management Award. Their significant initiatives in this area include disclosure of several types of waste generated in their operations, managing it, and reducing waste generation. They also have an effective strategy to divert waste from landfills. They have a 100% waste segregation plan for residential projects. Their project, Mahindra Vault City, Chennai, was recognized as India’s first certified zero waste to landfill city with a diversion rate of 100%.

We are honored to receive the Best Waste Management Award in the Environment category from ESG Risk Assessments and Insights. Mahindra Lifespaces, since 2011, has actively led the ESG transformation in the real estate sector. We are committed to building sustainable cities, sustainable offices, sustainable products, and sustainable communities. In 2020, Mahindra World City Chennai became the first city in India to be certified zero waste to landfill. And since then, we have extended our zero waste goals to all our construction sites and buildings. We encourage everyone to step up efforts on responsible resource consumption to enable value creation, both for the present and for the future. We are committed to net zero energy, waste, and water buildings by 2030. Once again, thank you for this honor and this recognition from ESG Risk AI.

With this, we conclude the environment category of our awards. We have six awards under the social category. While it is a mandatory requirement for all companies to allocate 2% of their profits to corporate social responsibility, the leaders in this category have truly gone above and beyond to make an impact. I’ll be highlighting some of the key exemplary performances by the winning companies. The list of all the award winners under the social category can be viewed on our yearbook as well as on our website. Starting with equal opportunity, please put out your hands together for Max Ventures and Industries Limited for the best equal opportunities award. Their initiatives in this space include their non-tolerance towards gender, color, religion, caste, or creed-based discrimination. They also report their aspiration to increase female employee strength and add new female employees every year.

It is indeed a pleasure for MAX Estates Limited, 100% subsidiary of MAX Ventures and Industries Limited, to be honored with an award for Best Equal Opportunities in the Social category at the ESG India Leadership Award 2022. Our purpose is to enhance quality of life through the spaces we create and we have chosen to do that by developing sustainable commercial and residential developments in Delhi NCR as a region. Max State strongly believes that the growth of an organization critically depends on attracting, nurturing and retaining talent. And to do so, enabling holistic well-being of talent is critical. We, through our policies and actions, are curating the organization culture that deeply cares for interests of people who work with us, which translates into credible governance, good economic performance, and positive work environment. We are guided by our code of conduct where any incident of discrimination based on gender, color, religion, caste, or greed is not tolerated and diversity is genuinely encouraged in Panama. We thank you ESG.ai for recognizing the continued effort and honoring us with this award. Thank you.

The next award is for Product Quality. Ladies and gentlemen, request you to felicitate Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited with a big round of applause for the Best Product Quality Award. I now highlight some of their major initiatives, which include India’s first hospital to be awarded ISO 92008 certification. They have implemented a quality program to enhance safety practices across all their hospitals. They also have an overall patient satisfaction rate of 96%.

We are delighted and honored to receive the Best Product Quality Award as part of the ESGRisk.ai’s award ceremony on ESG. This is indeed a very proud moment for us as the patient satisfaction scores of product quality and other such parameters have been awarded, have been identified, and have also been showcased through this award ceremony. We are also very delighted that the work of our frontline warriors have been recognized through these awards. We at Apollo are very clear in our commitment towards our patients and the larger community that we serve. And also in mind, keeping this in mind that our doctors, our frontline warriors and other related staff are also encouraged to do their best. We feel that ESG and sustainability will become a greater movement within healthcare. And we are happy that such awards and recognition will propel us to do more and for the entire health sector to do more. So once again, on behalf of Boppola Hospitals, thank you very much.

The next award that I’ll announce under the social category is for data privacy and security. Please put your hand together for Wipro Limited to bag the best data privacy and security award. Some of their initiatives include their cybersecurity policies and practices, their information security management systems, and conducting data security audits. They have a well-defined process to handle subject access requests. related to personal data to cater to the suspicious activity report requirements and implementation of a 24/7 personal incident management process to ensure speedy governance of personal data-related incidents. There are mandatory data privacy awareness and refresher sessions for all employees and ISO 27001 certified IT infrastructure, which provides assurance in the areas of information security, physical security and business continuity and benchmarking their processes to meet the European Union’s GDPR compliance requirements.

Hello, my name is P.S. Darayan, and I lead Global Sustainability for Wipro Limited. On behalf of Wipro, I’m happy to accept the recognition from SGAI for our leadership in data privacy. We all know that one of the cornerstones of DHG is trust and transparency. And data privacy is really about building trust with your stakeholders, whether they are customers, their suppliers, your employees, investors, et cetera. So responsible stewardship of data in this per race of the digital world that we live in is at the heart for not only take up the risk, but it’s building a mature digital enterprise. So thank you very much. We think that this award will be great for us to build on what you’ve done so far and to continuously improve and transform ourselves. Thank you.

The final award that I’ll be announcing under the social category is for employee development. I’m pleased to announce that HDFC Bank Limited has won the Best Employee Development Award. Please put your hands together to recognize their initiatives in this space. I would highlight some of the significant initiatives, which include 106.7 man days per employee training and partnering with academic institutions for employee development. They have taken a talent review council initiative, which meets twice a year to analyze employee feedback and address their concerns. Their SPARC program acts as a first step towards building a structured approach to leadership development.

Hi. At the outset, I’d like to thank the organizers for the honor of this award that has been given to HDFC Bank. Thank you. At the bank, we believe that ESG is the core and the heart of our very organization. The bank has invested tremendously in working towards our environmental and governance goals across the country. But I must say that one of the most important things for the bank is the employees. And our social objectives become that much more important starting at the very employee. In the last two years, all of us have seen that the most important need for the bank is to nurture, care, and collaborate with each and every employee. The bank has done that in a very, very organized and well-developed fashion. We have invested a lot in technology, in connecting with our employees, digital training, in-person training, you name it, and we have worked on it. We have also made sure that our diversity and inclusion goals are at the heart of all our recruitment. We ensure that we have a very diverse population, and to make it happen, we have a lot of programs running within the bank, including Pleasant Parenthood, Nurture, Care, Collaborate, and so on and so forth. But above all, like I said, the employees are what matter. They are the true gold that the bank values, and we have to ensure that that is what gives us the commitment and the energy that the bank needs for the future growth. But today, I would just like to thank the recognition that the bank has got, and I’m deeply honored to receive this award on behalf of all the employees and the bank. Thank you.

I would like to take forward the event to its most awaited moment of declaring the leaders in the individual categories of environment, social, governance, and transparency, as well as the overall ESG Leadership Award 2022. One of the most crucial aspects of a company is the way it is governed. Board diversity plays a really important role here since the diverse board of directors positively influence the company’s decision-making processes, effective risk management, and stakeholder alignment. A diverse board not only includes female members, but also members with different ethnic backgrounds, educational backgrounds, nationalities, and cultural backgrounds. Our winner of today’s Board Diversity Award has a board with 25% women as against the regulatory requirement of one female director. The company’s board diversity policy also includes several aspects apart from gender, like age, culture, educational background, ethnicity, professional experience, skills, and knowledge. All board appointments are made based on merit, keeping in mind the benefits of diversity at the board level as an essential element in supporting the attainment of the company’s strategic objectives and sustainable development. This makes it stand out from the rest of the companies Let’s put out our hands together for this winning company, which is none other than NESCO Limited.

For over seven decades, NESCO Limited has continued to consider environment, sustainability and governance as the most important drivers for overall growth of business and all its stakeholders. We are thankful to ESG Risk Assessments and Insights for recognizing and honoring us with ESG Leadership Award 2022 for Leadership in Board Diversity. We stay committed to the cause and this recognition will help us to better. Thank you.

Reducing carbon footprint, managing waste effectively, minimizing air pollution, and managing environmental impact are some of the crucial environmental management initiatives that many companies have undertaken but one company stands out for doing more than most. This company is amongst the few to undertake science-based targets to reduce COP1 and 2 GHG emissions by 2030. It is 8x water positive and 2.5x plastic negative through the co-processing of plastic wastes in their tills. Furthermore, the company has secured fifth position in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2021 among construction material companies globally. To recognize the initiatives, the award for Best Environmental Practices goes to Ambuja Cements Limited. Let us put our hands together to acknowledge and celebrate Ambuja Cements Limited, India’s ESG leader in environment, for its outstanding performance. Community services, product quality and safety, employee safety and development, equal opportunity, and human rights protection are some key aspects in the social category. This next company is committed to providing development opportunities to their employees and risk-killing the workforce. Their gender-diverse workforce has 38.6% female employees with a target of 41% by 2030. They currently have employed 620 persons with disabilities and have programs in place to support them. The company is committed to going local in order to strengthen their profile as an employer of choice for employees and take multiple initiatives to support the physical and emotional well-being of their workforce. It also undertakes Multiple CR initiatives, one such being the Tech for Good initiative, which has empowered more than 80 million lives. To showcase these initiatives, the Best Social Leadership Award goes to Infosys Limited. Let us put our hands together to acknowledge and celebrate Infosys Limited, India’s ESG leader in the social category, for its outstanding performance.

At Infosys, our endeavor is to maximize the human potential and to create the next opportunity for our employees, for clients, and our stakeholders. Due to our great focus on the ESG element of the organization, we have really looked at many aspects. For instance, look at diversity. We’ve now got almost about 39.6% women, which is the largest in the IT industry in India. We’ve also focused on really, you know, a strong social focus for the community. Through our Infosys Springboard, we are able to provide learning opportunities to many people. And now almost 6 million people are enrolled into Infosys Springboard. I think there are many areas that we want to, as a company, look at to ensure that our focus on both ensuring that the environmental, social, and our governance goals are met. At this point, I’d like to thank ESG AI for recognizing us and giving us this ESG Social Leadership Award. Thank you very much.

Disclosures and the integration of reporting standards are key to ensuring transparency to stakeholders that in turn increases corporate credibility. The award for overall best transparency practices is also conferred upon Infosys Limited to highlight their initiatives towards high disclosure rates and better reporting practices. The company complies with guidelines set by Companies Act 2013, Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting, BRSR, as well as is a signatory of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, TCFD. Furthermore, Infosys also complies with global reporting initiative standards for the preparation of the sustainability report. Let us put our hands together to acknowledge and celebrate Infosys Limited, India’s ESG leadership leader in transparency for its outstanding performance and practices and disclosures and reporting standards.

The vision of our founders to earn the respect of our stakeholders is deeply etched into the ethos of Infosys. It is no wonder then that we have many firsts to our credit. From being the first Indian company to introduce ESOPs way back in ’94, to publishing audited quarterly results, to voluntarily adopting GAAP, and many, many more. in addition to being the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ way back in 1999. In 2011, we committed to becoming carbon neutral on the global stage at the UN Global Compact, and we said we would do this by 2020. We achieved this goal and were recognized with the UN Global Climate Action Award in the climate neutral now category. Of course, this provided a huge impetus to craft and launch our ESG Vision 2030 with bolder and even more ambitious goals for the future. In 2008, we published our first sustainability report using the GRI framework. In 2013, Infosys was among the first companies in India to publish the Business Responsibility Report together with our annual report. In 2014, we were the first company globally across IT companies to publish a sustainability report leveraging the GRI G4 comprehensive framework. All our sustainability disclosures are independently assured. On behalf of Infosys, it gives me great pride to receive this award for transparency in our disclosures. Thank you, ESG Risk AI, for recognizing our efforts.

Thank you. It was heartening to get an insight into our efficient practices towards a sustainable tomorrow. Now on to last, but definitely not the least, our final award of the day, the overall ESG Leadership Award. recognizing excellence in environment, environmental, social, and governance performance. This company is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2035 and water neutrality by 2022. Its board of directors is made-up of 20% women and 50% independent members. It has initiatives in in place to touch 13.79 lakh plus community members through its CSR activities and has already made 8.70 lakh plus community members aware of the potential of digital financing through its digital Sakhi’s drive. Furthermore, the company has adopted global reporting initiatives, GRI standards, as well as international integrated reporting committee framework for the creation of its sustainability report. And the winner of today’s ESG India Leadership Award 2022 is L&T Financial Services. I request you all to put your hands together for L&T Financial Services, India’s overall ESG leader, for its commendable overall ESG performance and excellent practices in managing its environmental, social, and governance impact.

Financial Services is delighted to have been conferred the Best Overall ESG Leadership Award by ESG Risk AI. Sustainability is at the core of our commitment to people, business and community that we operate in. In fact, when we unveiled our Lakshya for 2026, that is our very own Lakshya 2026, sustained growth through ESG was one of the four pillars. This just demonstrates our commitment towards adoption of sustainable practices in the manner that we operate. We will strive to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability and recognition of this nature just gives us a look to our efforts. I would like to thank ESU Risk AI for recognizing our efforts in the area of sustainability. Thank you.